Climate Responsive Passive Strategies for Residences in the Warm Humid Climate Zone of South India

Abstract

Existing building energy codes specify general design recommendations for newlineenergy-efficient residential envelopes in various climate zones of India. These newlinerecommendations are broad and similar for various cities under the same climate zone. newlineVariations due to location, geography, and surrounding features are overlooked. newlineConsequently, the climatic potential of passive strategies remains unexplored to its full newlinepotential. As the climate zone information is general, an architect must perform further newlinecity-specific analysis to ascertain the exact thermal stress and comfort requirements newlinebefore selecting climate-responsive design strategies. Preliminary assessment tools newlineused for climate responsive architectural design use thermal comfort boundary newlineconditions to delineate the functioning of location-specific passive strategies. These newlineboundaries are based on international standards like ASHRAE 55, which overlook the newlinepotential of adaptation under Indian conditions, especially in the warm, humid climate. newlineAdditionally, the recommendations given by these models do not cater to freerunning newlinebuildings (Attia et al., 2019). For instance, the psychometric tool in Climate newlineConsultant recommends Cooling and Dehumidification by air conditioning for more newlinethan 50% of the time in most cities under this climate. To use the existing tools in newlinemaking decisions in the Indian context, it is essential to understand comfort in the Indian newlinecontext. Thus, a detailed climate file-based analysis was performed to assess the newlineclimatic potential of most recommended strategies in Tiruchirappalli. Additionally, to newlineinvestigate if variations existed among cities under the same zone, a climate file-based newlineanalysis in four inland and coastal cities (Chennai, Coimbatore, Nagercoil, and newlineTiruchirappalli) in the warm-humid climate of South India. Results show that the newlineclimatic potential for each strategy varies with location and plays a vital role in newlinedeveloping city-specific design inputs for residences.